If you’d asked me two weeks ago the over-under on Philadelphia 76ers wins this season, I’d have said 20. And today I don’t know that the number has moved a lot. For an 82-game long haul, this team is not built to survive the grind. Thirty wins? Maybe.

But I think they do have a point guard for the long haul. By now, you know about Michael Carter-Williams. I can’t say I’m that surprised. Here’s my synopsis from a June 28 column, the day after the Sixers chose MCW with the 11th overall pick in the NBA Draft:

“Even though I usually despise guards who can't shoot, Carter-Williams has so many dynamic assets that I think he can be a star in the NBA if he can fix that one weakness in his game. I know, that's usually a fool's chase, waiting on a guy who can't shoot consistently to suddenly find the magic. It doesn't usually work out that way.

“But I love everything else about this kid's arsenal. He is strong with the ball, he has a ton of moves that get him to the rim, he rises way above the crowd when he gets there and he knows how to spin shots on the glass. Carter-Williams plays relaxed and with an air of confidence. If his perimeter shot ever does click in, he will be a tremendous handful for anyone to guard.”

The risk of taking Carter-Williams and relinquishing Jrue Holiday was about the unknown and known. And really why should the Sixers care about abandoning the recent past? Holiday was a familiar contributor; MCW was a rookie being given the keys to the car. But Holiday was not a point guard; this kid is – in every way.

Certain qualities of demeanor that you see in a young player you just don’t discount because they are relatively rare. Carter-Williams has a certain calm and intelligence about him that is immediately apparent. When you ask him questions, he looks at you and listens and then responds with specific and sensible explanations.

See that and you know he has the same sort of skills with his teammates. That’s great for any young player but for a point man it’s a major asset because the lead guard is the one who can make everyone better.

It’s that demeanor that will act as a stabilizing influence for less mature players such as Evan Turner. While Turner is prone to sulking, self-pity, volatile outbursts and other needless drama, Carter-Williams can absorb it like a sponge cleaning up a mess. Everyone needs a player like this on a roster. For it to be such a young guy is a huge bonus.

How did MCW fall all the way to No. 11 when a dog like Cody Zeller can go No. 4? There was a red flag – a little shoplifting incident at a Lord & Taylor in a Syracuse mall reported by The Syracuse Post-Standard in December. Jim Boeheim stonewalled it. The store handled it internally and never called law enforcement – that’s the way many department stores take care of such incidents – so there was no police report. And Carter-Williams himself rationalized it away as “a misunderstanding.”

Well, 20-year-old kids do stupid things. We all have. It’ll only be referenced again if Carter-Williams gets in some sort of knuckleheaded chaos as an adult.

What’s apparent now is that he’s worked very hard on his game. And nobody in Syracuse has ever questioned the kid’s work ethic. His shot looks more fluid. His reckless turnovers began to diminish in the middle of last season. His defense has been at once disciplined and shrewd, using his 6-6 stature, long arms and foot-speed both on the ball and off it. He looks like he’s making basketball his full-time job.

I’ll say this as I said last June: If MCW’s perimeter shot keeps going down as it has during the 76ers’ improbable 3-0 start, he is going to be nearly impossible to check. Magic Johnson’s tweeted prediction last week will then surely come true: NBA rookie of the year.

The Sixers may reap the best of both worlds – a developing franchise player at the game’s most important position; and a record lousy enough to scoop up another couple of impact players next June. What’s not to like about that?